Eating quickly makes you put on weight because your stomach does not have time
to tell your brain it is full, scientists find.

Researchers found that "wolfing down" your food slows and restricts the release of a special "full up" hormone in your stomach.

That means that you eat more food before the brain realises that your body has already had enough to eat.

The decreased release of these hormones, can often lead to overeating, the researchers concluded.

"Most of us have heard that eating fast can lead to food overconsumption and obesity, and in fact some observational studies have supported this notion," said Dr Alexander Kokkinos, the author of the research.

"Our study provides a possible explanation for the relationship between speed eating and overeating by showing that the rate at which someone eats may impact the release of gut hormones that signal the brain to stop eating."

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Dr Kokkinos and his team at Laiko General Hospital in Athens, Greece, had 17 volunteers eat a test meal of 300ml of ice cream at different rates.

Researchers took blood samples for the measurement of gut hormones before the meal and at 30 minute intervals after the beginning of eating, until the end of the session, two and a half hours later.

They found that volunteers who took the full 30 minutes to finish the ice cream had higher concentrations of the hormones PYY and GLP-1, both associated with satiety, and also said they felt fuller.

"Our findings give some insight into an aspect of modern-day food overconsumption, namely the fact that many people, pressed by demanding working and living conditions, eat faster and in greater amounts than in the past," said Dr Kokkinos.

"The warning we were given as children that "wolfing down your food will make you fat" may in fact have a physiological explanation."

The research was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.